Dash increases blocksize to 2MB after Bitcoin cancels it

Dash, the sixth largest cryptocurrency, has released a new software update that speeds up transactions and reduces costs to almost zero. The 12.2 version of the Dash core software has many new features, but the most prominent is the increment of block size from 1MB to 2MB.

Bitcoin was also going for a similar update through a hard fork scheduled for next week.  The split, however, had to be cancelled due to lack of consent as developers believed that it might result in division in the Bitcoin community. On the other hand, Dash’s update was widely accepted by its investors as well as developers. In fact, 99% of the network had voted in favor of this update in early 2016.

Announced this week, the software update has also offered improvements, various RPC changes, and bugfixes. Dash’s goal of reducing transaction cost was also achieved, as a single transaction now costs less than $0.01. Their “InstantSend” transactions, which take two seconds at maximum for completion, now cost just $0.03.

What’s interesting to notice is the difference between both the platforms’ users’ reactions towards a 2MB blocksize increment. While Bitcoiners rallied against it, Dash users accepted it with open arms. This is largely based on the difference in their methods of application. Bitcoin’s plan was to split its Blockchain, thus creating two competing cryptocurrencies. This would lead to confusion among the investors as to which one is the “real” Bitcoin.

Dash’s approach was different. They devised a strategy that’s more favorable for its users, and for itself as well.  Known as “spork”, it is way to launch a hard fork by starting it off as a soft fork first. The idea is to give all users a chance to upgrade to the new software before the actual implementation of the update, which is done only when majority of the users have upgraded to it. This saves the platform from chaos and confusion within the network. The comparison of both these strategies in terms of client-satisfaction shows why Dash welcomed the fork while Bitcoiners avoided it.

Although the increment of block size to 2MB is not a requirement for Dash at the moment, the update was carried out nonetheless as it was a part of the greater on-chain scaling plan. Dash founder, Evan Duffield, explained, “we intend to show just how far an incentivized second tier [masternode] architecture can take a project like Dash.”